C'Wealth Games scam: Shunglu committee indicts Suresh Kalmadi

The Shunglu committee has indicted sacked former Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee chief, Suresh Kalmadi and his aides for the manner in which contracts were awarded to private firms.
 
The fresh report, which has been drawn from voluminous documents and evidence, including those from the comptroller and auditor general (CAG), CBI and a multitude of investigating agencies, has come down heavily on the Kalmadi.

“The OC was synonymous with the chairman. Extreme concentration of power at the top ensured that decision making remained concentrated in the hands of the chairman and his coterie of loyalists,” the report states. To maintain that stranglehold any case of dissent was not tolerated.
 
In its first report submitted on January 31 the committee had recommended strict action against suspended Prasar Bharti CEO BS Lalli and former DG, Doordarshan, Aruna Sharma, under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
 
In its second and third report, the committee named Delhi’s lieutenant governor Tejinder Khanna and chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
 
In the latest report the two member committee headed by former CAG VK Shunglu has highlighted the role of several government agencies for causing estimated losses of over Rs1,600 crore.
 
The committee has found Rs800 crore as cost of delay in completing construction of all the sites. It said there was financial oversight by civic and construction agencies which resulted in undue gain of over Rs250 crore to contractors. The committee has also found there was an estimated Rs574 crore “wasteful expenditure” on certain types of assets.
 
The committee has found evidence of criminal misconduct and managerial lapses on part of top government functionaries including chairman, NDMC, the then vice-chancellor Delhi University, CFO Delhi University, DG CPWD, project manager (CWG) CPWD and senior officials of the Delhi Development Authority and EIL have come in for particular notice.
 
“The malaise runs deep and cannot be dismissed as a one-off aberration for which relatively junior functionaries alone can be held responsible. Their acts of omission and commission facilitated undue gains to contractors, led to wasteful expenditure and contributed to overall loss to the government,” the report states.
 
The Committee has found irregularities in execution of contracts related to ticketing, sponsorship, overlays, Timing, Scoring and Results, catering and recruitments.
 
The committee has specifically questioned three contracts awarded to Event Knowledge Services (EKS), a consultancy firm, for venue development. Calling the award “dubious,” the committee has recommended a CBI and ED probe to trace the flow of funds from OC to the company in Mauritius.
 
The committee has observed that the OC had serious governance problems due to an unwieldy general body with 500 members. The report says there was “conflict of interest” among OC officials.
 
The committee has pointed out there was little accountability, and that such a state of affairs was because of the conduct of OC top brass.

"Accountability, internal and external was not the norm. The executive board hardly exercised its governance role and often delegated responsibility to the executive management committee to the point of abdication of responsibility. Consequently, all key decisions were taken by a handful of powerful loyalists of the chairman (Kalmadi),” the Shunglu committee said.
 
The report has also found that several posts in the secretariat and other key positions were not filled on merit. Most people handling these positions did not have the required experience. “Many senior positions were filled up with persons of questionable integrity and past records of vigilance cases. Government instructions were flouted in postings for sensitive positions,” the report notes.